Mayor: Middletown blast originated behind energy plant

Middletown — At a 3 p.m. press conference Mayor Sebastian Giuliano and police and fire officials said the investigation thus far indicates that the origin of the ignition in Sunday's explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant was outside, between two generators in the rear of the building, but they haven't identified the source.

Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said he was told by a construction worker that all safety protocols were in place at the time.

The bodies of those killed were removed around noon today, officials said. The mayor said plumbers and pipefitters "took the brunt."

Among those killed was Raymond Dobratz, 58, of Old Saybrook, Peter Chetulis of Thomaston, Ronald J. Crabb of Colchester, Roy Rushton of Ontario, Canada, and Chris Walters of Florissant, Mo.

The causes of death will be determined by the state medical examiner's office.

Officials said they don't expect the total of five dead and 12 injured to go up. About 100 people who were supposed to be at the site are now accounted for.

Police Chief Patrick McMahon said there's a search warrant in effect for the site until midnight Wednesday for investigators to gather information. The area is classified as an active crime scene until investigators rule out criminal negligence as a factor.

Officials said the plant is still unstable, but that welders are on site shoring up some I-beams that may have cracked. Deputy Chief Marc Fongemie of the South Fire District said crews are checking on pressurized cylinders that could have been damaged.

Sunday morning's blast at the plant , about 20 miles south of Hartford, happened as workers were clearing gas lines of air.

Peg Arico, a spokeswoman at Middlesex Hospital, said the hospital received 27 patients injured in Sunday's blast. Three remain hospitalized there, while one was transferred to Hartford Hospital and one to Yale-New Haven Hospital. The remaining 22 were released. The discrepancy between those numbers and the figures cited by the mayor is unclear.

Arico said injuries ranged from broken bones and fractures to ear drum injuries, abdominal injuries and "general bruising."

She said the hospital mobilized for the disaster according to its emergency management plan. The emergency room normally has two staff physicians on Sunday. Four others, including staff orthopedic surgeons were called to assist on Sunday.

Norwich resident Eric Mcleod was injured in the blast, according to a woman who answered the phone at his Stony Ridge Road home. McLeod remained hospitalized this morning, said the woman, who asked not to be indentified.

"We're feeling very bad for the families who lost someone right now," she said. "We're grateful to the EMTs and the hospital right now."

The explosion was so powerful it alarmed residents who heard the boom and felt tremors in their homes miles away.

The blast left huge pieces of metal that once encased the plant peeling off its sides. A large swath of the structure was blackened and surrounded by debris, but the building, its roof and its two smokestacks were still standing at the site, which is near Wesleyan University on a wooded and hilly 137-acre parcel of land overlooking the Connecticut River.

Rescue crews combed through the debris until about 2:30 a.m. Monday.

The nearly completed 620-megawatt plant is being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas, which accounts for about a fifth of the nation's electricity.

Kleen Energy Systems LLC began construction on the plant in February 2008. It had signed a deal with Connecticut Light and Power for the electricity produced by the plant, and would be one of the biggest built in New England in the last few years.

The company is run by former City Councilman William Corvo.

Energy Investors Funds, a private equity fund that indirectly owns a majority share in the power plant, said it was cooperating with authorities.

Safety board investigators have done extensive work on the issue of gas line purging since an explosion last year at a Slim Jim factory in North Carolina killed four people. They've identified other explosions caused by workers who were unsafely venting gas lines inside buildings.

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Associated Press reports were included in this article.